How To Forge An Iron Will?

Ideally, never have to use it and always swim with the current. It is never a good idea, however, to follow the stubbornness that some people seem to cherish: that of filling their schedules with activities and commitments that test their will. Perhaps reaching difficult challenges for the will brings great satisfaction but also a great psychological wear and tear, so the first step in building an iron will is not to overdo it. We must try not to carry weights all day or every day, on the contrary: we must make sure that most of our activities go in the direction of gravity. It is also called intelligence.

Will and habit

In addition, willpower becomes less necessary when we create inertia. Inertia, in physics, means the movement of an object when the sum of the forces exerted on it are zero. Imagine a ball that rolls on a surface without friction: on this surface, it would never stop or we would have difficulty in stopping it.

Well, this inertia in people has to do with habit. For example, a habit we all have: getting up. If we adopt a regular time to get out of bed, the willpower we have to use to get up will be less and less. In a way, it is about taming or adapting our behavior, with discipline, so that the end result depends less and less on the will but rather on an inertia which perpetuates a movement in our favor.

Motivation, the soul of the will

On the other hand, if there is one help which encourages the will, it is that of motivation. This, for example, is very little understood in libraries. If you return your books a few days late, you will surely get a penalty. That is to say, you will not be able to borrow for a few days. This sanction, once the loan expiration date is reached, works against the fact that the user goes to the library as soon as possible because it eliminates his main motivation to go, that of borrow books immediately.

Indeed, immediately, the cost of not being able to borrow books in two, three or even four days is perceived by the user as much lower than the cost of going to the library and not being able to borrow books. at once. Thus, there are users who, once the expiration date has passed, postpone the task to a time when they will walk past the library and not go there on purpose.

The relationship with motivation can also be understood in another sense. For example, when we set ourselves a medium- or long-term goal, achieving the intermediate objectives will relieve the will-load of the tasks that we like the least. Imagine that you have set yourself the goal of losing 10 pounds, and for that you have decided to pay attention to your diet and increase your daily exercise. Well, if you consider that the steps you have taken to achieve this goal are working, it is very likely that the effort that you will have to put in to maintain them over time will be less.

Achieving small goals is a big help for our willpower.

Willingness, self-efficacy and goal setting

Strength of will also depends on how we define our goals. Precise, divisible, assessable, stable, well-defined objectives over which we almost always have control will be of great help to the will. Thus, uncertainty will be one of the factors that can harm our will the most, because it eliminates part of the surface on which it is held.

The will is also sensitive to self-efficacy. Self-efficacy has to do with the feeling or intuition that we are going to be efficient at completing a task. Here is the true story of a male athlete who recently recounted going through a period of accumulating injuries and for two months he had to cancel several workouts.

This man says that before, before doing the most difficult training sessions, it cost him a lot, but today it costs him a lot more mentally. He thinks he’s not going to be able to finish them, so he canceled some before he even started them.

Here, it was the perceived lack of self-efficacy that raised the bar of his willpower higher. The anticipation of having to get up earlier, move to the training venue, warm up, start, have to pause the session and go home feeling that way is what has raised the demand for his will.

Willingness and social support

Finally, you should know that the will can also see a precious help in social support. For example, sharing with others that we are quitting smoking can inspire them to help us through our most difficult times. To this will, we must add a motivation that we all have and which is that of maintaining consistency between what we say and do.

So social support is a double-edged sword. If it is not intelligent and constantly reminds us of our flaws or points the finger at anticipations that load us with anxiety, it can further harm our will. That’s why when we share a goal with others, we can also tell them how we would like them to support us.

As we have seen throughout this article, a more or less strong will is important, but it is often the factors that relieve its work that make it more accessible. Indeed, any exercise of will supposes a great wear and tear, an investment of our inner strength, which we must use intelligently since it is limited.

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